The Enfolie embraced their lost alien - obviously a youngling with no mana training, and very obviously lost. With experimentation and their own magic, they had managed to adapt his digestion enough to keep him alive, and his health was slowly improving. Strangely, he didn't even seem to know the Homecall ritual that was an obvious part of the structure of the World - other than those few who survived after loss of homeworld.
The magi were able to determine he had only a few months of Gateworld exposure, and no mana control structure at all, only using the Way of the Mindless, as happened to any living creature that entered Gateworld. They could safely send him back - he had no means of tracing them. Still, it would be best to slightly alter his memories of them to prevent a more competent being detecting their involvement with this new race.
The elders could see this new race would likely be lured into a System cult soon. Even the Enfolie themselves still had some enclaves of system cultists left - after all, the System was the only hope a race had if a Swarm discovered them before they began to mature.
So the Enfolie guided Ki Sung Lee through a series of dreams, in which he was taught the very basics any youngling should know, the Homecall ritual, the Swarm dangers, the lure of the System, and the basics of growing magic ability channels oneself. In return, he was milked of his dreams of Earth, his nation, his profession, his hopes and dreams, and his personal ident - they would always be able to find him. Then they sent him home, where he appeared in his birth cottage back in North Korea, which was now abandoned, but still standing.
Ki Sung Lee looked out over the familiar childhood landscape and wondered - how was he going to report this?
Frixprl noticed the return of the wayward survivor and briefly contemplated altering the man's ident, but decided not to - these Enfolie were not the kind to disrupt his plans - even if they were able to. He did wonder if they still had enough of a System connection to lead it to humanity - but if it happened, it happened, and would just become part of the Story. The FUN part would be in what he reported to his superiors, and how they would react.
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Moonbase was off to an explosive start - a bit too literally, as some of the supply canisters were sent across with too much air pressure left in them. But being able to build on the Moon and fill everything up with air pumped through a hose from a Grateworld-side air compressor made things fairly easy. The base was on the far side from Earth, of course, but they were already working on relay stations to the Earth horizon for direct radio communication - rather than having to depend only on their Gateworld com lines.
The real debate was environmental - to terraform the Moon or not? It would take thousands of Gates, but the scientists claimed it could become habitable in between 3 and 9 decades, if the project were allowed in the first place.
The big issue would be that it would no longer be easy to launch from the Moon back into space if the Moon had an atmosphere - the extra drag would be enormous. The same consideration would apply to Mars, of course, if Gate conditions there were the same.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
It was decided for now to wait. If a Gate could be established on a smaller body - like the Martian moons, for example, that would solve the launch issues - since those bodies couldn't possibly hold an atmosphere anyway.
China, India, and the EU had also sent Moon landings now, so it was going to be necessary to coordinate with them for any large-scale engineering projects. China was remaining dead silent regarding their Gateworld plans, but covert ops had shown they intended to reclaim Taiwan soon using the Gates. However, half the population of Taiwan was already living in their own Gateworld enclaves.
In fact, Taiwan Semiconductor had already reserved a Lunar, hard-vacuum Gate for an experimental fabrication plant.
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The Starship program had been on pause while Gate-economics was sorting itself out, but now their first full-scale one-way Starship was ready for launch - they would almost certainly be the first to land humans on Mars, 62 of them, according to their latest estimates.
The oddsmakers gave them an 82% chance to make the journey safely, and a 70% chance of creating the first permanent Mars colony.
Russia wasn't bothering - it was getting rich. After half their population had moved to Gateworld, those remaining had been able to fully realize Russia's oil and gas potential. Every Russian citizen was now living with an income equal to an upper middle class American or better, with promises that amount would double next year. Loyalty and patriotism was sky-high among those who chose to stay. Many from the old Soviet bloc wanted to immigrate, and Russia was able to pick and choose who to allow in for all the new jobs it was creating.
In the EU, Gate-based garbage disposal at all levels had turned around the environmental problems - at the cost of creating some very strange Gateworld ecosystems. Ecologists warned that such Gates should be closed down within a year or two, or that strict measures be taken to prevent any mutations from coming back to Earth from disposal sites.
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Rachel had passed on what she knew, been well paid, and was now living in her sanctuary full time, with once-a-week return times scheduled by hospital staff. What life she brought in with her thrived and seemed to sculpt itself to her tastes - even the weather rarely disappointed her. She felt GOOD here - far from the evils of humankind.
The biggest problem was the lack of communication - it was lonely out here, and bringing anyone else in was a huge pain.
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Ky San was somehow still alive. Insects and algae were his only food. Thankfully, he had managed to eliminate nearly all the insects that still wanted to feed on HIM. They seemed to be forming an ecosystem of their own as time went on. After being on the edge of death for well over a month, he was starting to regain his health. New forms of lichen were starting to grow near the pond, and he might have another food source soon, but the insects did seem to be thriving and diversifying as time went on. Also, true moss had appeared from somewhere, raising his hopes.
Was there other life within range for him to find? If he could rebuild some body fat, it would be worth starting some explorations.
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At the edge of central DC, the house had been packed with explosives and booby-trapped to the maximum, but they had found a better use for it than simply blowing it up. New and deadlier diseases were popping up everywhere, and some of them worked cross-species. No one would notice some extra stray dogs, cats, and birds. So, anything that looked promising, they just injected into assorted hosts and let loose into the outskirts of DC.
Let Allah deal their fate. Their Gate-making agent had moved on - Vegas and Hollywood were next on the list. The New York project had been quite a media sensation, but not really what anyone could claim to be effective - they would have to do better if they expected heavenly reward.